Isaac Albéniz
Encyclopedia
Camprodon
Camprodon is a small city in the comarca of Ripollès in Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border.-History:The settlement of Camprodon was in 1118, when Ramon Berenguer III allowed the building of a market near the monastery of Sant Pere de Camprodon, which is located the...
– 18 May 1909, Cambo-les-Bains
Cambo-les-Bains
Cambo-les-Bains is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.-People:...
) was a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Catalan
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
best known for his piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
works based on folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
idioms (many of which have been transcribed by others for guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
).
Life
Born in CamprodonCamprodon
Camprodon is a small city in the comarca of Ripollès in Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border.-History:The settlement of Camprodon was in 1118, when Ramon Berenguer III allowed the building of a market near the monastery of Sant Pere de Camprodon, which is located the...
, province of Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
, to Ángel Albéniz (a customs official) and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz was a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
who first performed at the age of four. At age seven, after apparently taking lessons from Antoine François Marmontel
Antoine François Marmontel
Antoine François Marmontel was a French pianist, teacher and musicographer.Marmontel entered the Paris Conservatory in 1827. His teachers were Pierre Zimmerman in pianoforte, Victor Dourlen in harmony, Jacques Fromental Halévy in fugue and Jean-François Le Sueur in composition...
, he passed the entrance examination for piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was refused admission because he was believed to be too young.
His concert career began at the young age of nine when his father toured both Isaac and his sister, Clementina, throughout northern Spain. By the time he had reached 12, he had made many attempts to run away from home. A popular myth is that at the age of 12 Albéniz stowed away in a ship bound for Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. He then made his way via Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, giving concerts in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco and then travelled to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. By age 15, he had already given concerts worldwide. This over-dramatized story is not entirely true. Albéniz did travel the world as a performer, however he was accompanied by his father. As a customs agent he was required to travel frequently. After a juxtaposition of Isaac's concert dates, on his alleged adventure, and his father's travel itinerary it is apparent that they were traveling together. After a short stay at the Leipzig Conservatory, in 1876 he went to study in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. In 1880, he went to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
to study with Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, only to find out that Liszt was in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
In 1883, he met the teacher and composer Felip Pedrell, who inspired him to write Spanish music such as the Chants d'Espagne
Chants d'Espagne
Chants d'Espagne op. 232, is a suite of three, then five parts pieces for the piano by Isaac Albéniz. Prélude, Orientale and Sous le palmier were published in 1892, the pieces Córdoba and Seguidillas were added in the 1898 edition.-1...
. The first movement (Prelude) of that suite, later retitled after the composer's death as Asturias (Leyenda), is probably most famous today as part of the classical guitar repertoire, even though it was originally composed for piano and only later transcribed. (Many of Albéniz's other compositions were also transcribed for guitar, notably by Francisco Tárrega
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist of the Romantic period.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Vila-real, Castelló, Spain...
). At the 1888 Universal Exposition in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, the piano manufacturer Erard sponsored a series of 20 concerts featuring Albéniz's music.
The apex of his concert career is considered to be 1889 to 1892 when he had concert tours throughout Europe. During the 1890s Albéniz lived in London and Paris. For London he wrote some musical comedies which brought him to the attention of the wealthy Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer
Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer
Francis Burdett Thomas Nevill Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer was a London solicitor, poet, librettist, and wealthy heir to the fortune of the Coutts banking family. He is now remembered chiefly as a patron and collaborator of the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz.-Family history:His father was the...
. Money-Coutts commissioned and provided him with librettos for the opera Henry Clifford
Henry Clifford (opera)
Henry Clifford is a grand opera in three acts composed by Isaac Albéniz to an English libretto written by Francis Money-Coutts . It premiered at the Gran Teatro del Liceo on 8 May 1895...
and for a projected trilogy of Arthurian operas. The first of these, Merlin
Merlin (opera)
Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz. It is in three acts and the libretto was written in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer ....
(1898–1902) was thought to have been lost, but has recently been reconstructed and performed;. Albéniz never completed Lancelot (only the first act is finished, as a vocal and piano score), and he never began Guinevere, the final part.
In 1900 he started to suffer from Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
and returned to writing piano music. Between 1905 and 1908 he composed his final masterpiece, Iberia
Iberia (Albéniz)
Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half....
(1908), a suite of twelve piano "impressions".
In 1883, the composer married his student Rosina Jordana. They had three children, Blanca (who died in 1886), Laura (a painter), and Alfonso (who played for Real Madrid
Real Madrid C.F.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
in the early 1900s before embarking on a career as a diplomat). Two other children died in infancy.
Albéniz died on 18 May 1909 at age 48 in Cambo-les-Bains
Cambo-les-Bains
Cambo-les-Bains is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.-People:...
of Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
, and is buried at the Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
.
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez is a Spanish politician and mayor of Madrid. A stalwart of the conservative People's Party , he has previously been a leading figure in various local and national legislative bodies.-Personal life:...
, current mayor of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, and Cécilia Attias, the former wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, are two of Isaac Albéniz's great-grandchildren.
Early works
Albéniz's early works were mostly “salon styleSalon music
Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...
” music. Albéniz's first published composition, Marcha Militar, appeared in 1868 -a number of works written before this are now lost. He continued composing in traditional styles ranging from Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
until the mid-1880s. He also wrote at least five zarzuela
Zarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
s, of which all but two are now lost.
Middle period - Spanish influences
During the late 1880s, the strong influence of Spanish style is evident in Albéniz's music. In 1883 Isaac Albéniz met the teacher and composer Felipe Pedrell. Pedrell was a leading figure in the development of nationalist Spanish music. Gilbert Chase, in his book The Music of Spain, describes Pedrell’s influence on Albéniz: “What Albéniz derived from Pedrell was above all a spiritual orientation, the realization of the wonderful values inherent in Spanish music". Felipe Pedrell inspired Isaac Albéniz to write Spanish music such as the Suite española, Op. 47 noted for its delicate, intricate melody and abrupt dynamic changes.In addition to the Spanish spirit infused in Albéniz’s music, he incorporated other qualities as well. In Pola Baytleman’s biography on Albéniz, she discerns four characteristics of the music from the middle period as follows:
“1. The dance rhythms of Spain, of which there are a wide variety. 2. The use of cante jondoCante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
, which means deep or profound singing. It is the most serious and moving variety of flamencoFlamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
or Spanish gypsy song, often dealing with themes of death, anguish, or religion. 3. The use of exotic scales also associated with flamenco music. The Phrygian modePhrygian modeThe Phrygian mode can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter...
is the most prominent in Albéniz’s music, although he also used the AeolianAeolian modeThe Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale called the natural minor scale.The word "Aeolian" in the music theory of ancient Greece was an alternative name for what Aristoxenus called the Low Lydian tonos , nine semitones...
and Mixolydian modeMixolydian modeMixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek harmoniai or tonoi, based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; a modern musical mode or diatonic scale, related to the medieval mode.-Greek Mixolydian:The idea of a...
s as well as the whole-tone scale. 4. The transfer of guitar idioms into piano writing".
Following his marriage Albéniz settled in Madrid and produced a quantity of music in a relatively short period.By 1886 he had written over 50 piano pieces. The Albéniz biographer, Walter A. Clark, says that pieces of this period received enthusiastic reception in the composer's many concerts. Chase describes music from this period,
“Taking the guitar as his instrumental model, and drawing his inspiration largely from the peculiar traits of AndalusianAndalusian peopleThe Andalusians are the people of the southern region in Spain approximated by what is now called Andalusia. They are generally not considered an ethnically distinct people because they lack two of the most important markers of distinctiveness: their own language and an awareness of a presumed...
folk music — but without using actual folk themes — Albéniz achieves a stylization of Spanish traditional idioms that while thoroughly artistic, gives a captivating impression of spontaneous improvisation... Cordoba is the piece that best represents the style of Albéniz in this period, with its hauntingly beautiful melody, set against the acrid dissonances of the plucked accompaniment imitating the notes of the Moorish guslaGuslaGusła is the debut concept album of the Polish band Lao Che released in January 2002. The theme of the album is ancient Slavic culture and Slavic mythology.-Track listing:Titles in brackets are translated from Polish....
s. Here is the heady scent of jasmines amid the swaying palm tress, the dream fantasy of an Andalusian “Arabian Nights” in which Albéniz loved to let his imagination dwell.”
Later period
While Albéniz's crowning achievement, IberiaIberia (Albéniz)
Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half....
, was written in the last years of his life in France, many of its preceding works are well-known and of great interest. The five pieces in Chants d'Espagne
Chants d'Espagne
Chants d'Espagne op. 232, is a suite of three, then five parts pieces for the piano by Isaac Albéniz. Prélude, Orientale and Sous le palmier were published in 1892, the pieces Córdoba and Seguidillas were added in the 1898 edition.-1...
, (Songs of Spain, published in 1892) are a solid example of the compositional ideas he was exploring in the “middle period” of his life. The suite shows what Albéniz biographer Walter Aaron Clark describes as the “first flowering of his unique creative genius”, and the beginnings of compositional exploration that became the hallmark of his later works. This period also includes his operatic works - Merlin
Merlin (opera)
Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz. It is in three acts and the libretto was written in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer ....
, Henry Clifford
Henry Clifford (opera)
Henry Clifford is a grand opera in three acts composed by Isaac Albéniz to an English libretto written by Francis Money-Coutts . It premiered at the Gran Teatro del Liceo on 8 May 1895...
, and Pepita Jiménez
Pepita Jiménez
Pepita Jiménez is a lyric comedy or comic opera with music written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. The original opera was written in one act and used an English libretto by Albéniz's patron and collaborator, the Englishman Francis Money-Coutts, which is based on the novel of the same name by...
. His orchestral works of this period include Spanish Rhapsody (1887) and Catalonia (1899).
Albéniz on his own music
Perhaps the best source on the works is Albéniz himself. He is quoted as commenting on his earlier period works as,“there are among them a few things that are not completely worthless. The music is a bit infantile, plain, spirited; but in the end, the people, our Spanish people, are something of all that. I believe that the people are right when they continue to be moved by Cordoba, Mallorca, by the copla of the Sevillanas, by the Serenata, and Granada. In all of them I now note that there is less musical science, less of the grand idea, but more color, sunlight, flavor of olives. That music of youth, with its little sins and absurdities that almost point out the sentimental affectation…appears to me like the carvings in the AlhambraAlhambraThe Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
, those peculiar arabesques that say nothing with their turns and shapes, but which are like the air, like the sun, like the blackbirds or like the nightingales of its gardens. They are more valuable than all else of Moorish Spain, which though we may not like it, is the true Spain.”
Impact
Albéniz’s influence on the future of Spanish music was profound. His activities as conductor, performer and composer significantly raised the profile of Spanish music abroad and encouraged Spanish music and musicians in his own country.In transcription, Albéniz's works have become an important part of the repertoire of the classical guitar. Asturias in particular is heard most often on the guitar, as are Granada, Sevilla, Cadiz, Cordoba and the Tango in D. Gordon Crosskey and Cuban-born guitarist Manuel Barrueco
Manuel Barrueco
Manuel Barrueco is a Cuban virtuoso classical guitarist. He was born in 1952 in Santiago de Cuba, on Cuba's southeastern shore. He has toured in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and serves on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland.-Biography:...
have both made solo guitar arrangements of the full eight-movement Suite espanola. Selections from Iberia have rarely been attempted on solo guitar but have been very effectively performed by guitar ensembles, such as the performance by John Williams
John Williams (guitarist)
John Christopher Williams is an Australian classical guitarist, and a long-term resident of the United Kingdom. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award win in the 'Best Chamber Music Performance' category with Julian Bream for Julian and John .-Biography:John Williams was born on 24 April 1941 in...
and Julian Bream
Julian Bream
Julian Bream, CBE is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute....
of Iberia's opening "Evocation." The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
incorporated "Asturias" into their song "Spanish Caravan"; also, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
's To Tame a Land uses the introduction of the piece for the song bridge; and more recently, a guitar version of Granada functions as something of a love theme in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a 2008 romance comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall...
In 1997 the Fundación Isaac Albéniz was founded in his name to promote Spanish music and musicians and to act as a research centre for Albéniz and Spanish music in general.
In film
A film, AlbénizAlbéniz (film)
Albéniz is a 1947 black & white Argentine Silver Condor award winning biographical drama film directed by Luis César Amadori and written by Pedro Miguel Obligado...
, based on his life, was made in 1947. It was produced in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
List of selected works
Opera:- The magic opal
- Henry CliffordHenry Clifford (opera)Henry Clifford is a grand opera in three acts composed by Isaac Albéniz to an English libretto written by Francis Money-Coutts . It premiered at the Gran Teatro del Liceo on 8 May 1895...
- Pepita JiménezPepita JiménezPepita Jiménez is a lyric comedy or comic opera with music written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. The original opera was written in one act and used an English libretto by Albéniz's patron and collaborator, the Englishman Francis Money-Coutts, which is based on the novel of the same name by...
- MerlinMerlin (opera)Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz. It is in three acts and the libretto was written in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer ....
- Lancelot (unfinished: 1st act complete)
Zarzuela:
- Cuanto más viejo. Lost music.
- Catalanes de Gracia. Lost music.
- El canto de salvación. Lost music.
- San Antonio de la Florida.
- La real hembra.
Works for piano:
- Tres suites antiguas (Three ancient suites) (1885–1886).
- Chants d'EspagneChants d'EspagneChants d'Espagne op. 232, is a suite of three, then five parts pieces for the piano by Isaac Albéniz. Prélude, Orientale and Sous le palmier were published in 1892, the pieces Córdoba and Seguidillas were added in the 1898 edition.-1...
, Op.232 - Suite española, op. 47 (Spanish suite). With 8 pieces: Granada, Cataluña, Sevilla, Cádiz, Asturias, Aragón, Castilla and Cuba.
- Suite española, op. 97. 4 pieces: Zaragoza, Sevilla, Cadix-gaditana, and Zambra granadina (1883–1888) (1889).
- España, Op.165. 6 pieces: Preludio, Tango, Malagueña, Serenata, Capricho Catalán and Zortzico.
- Doce piezas características (Twelve characteristic pieces) (1888).
- Recuerdos de viaje (Travel memories), Op.71. 7 pieces: En el mar, Leyenda, Alborada, En la Alhambra, Puerta de Tierra, Rumores de la caleta, En la playa (1886–1887).
- IberiaIberia (Albéniz)Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half....
. Suite for piano with 12 pieces in 4 books ("quaderns"):- 1º quadern: Evocación, El Puerto, El Corpus Christi en Sevilla.
- 2º quadern: Rondeña, Almería, Triana.
- 3º quadern: El Albaicín, El Polo, Lavapiés.
- 4º quadern: Málaga, Jérez, Eritaña.
- La Vega.
- Navarra, finished by his pupil Déodat de SéveracDéodat de SéveracDéodat de Séverac was a French composer.-Biography:...
. - Azulejos, unfinished: finished by Enrique GranadosEnrique GranadosEnrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
- Rapsodia española (Spanish rhapsody) (1887)
Other works:
- Cristo, oratorioOratorioAn oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
. - 2 concertos for piano and orchestra: Concerto Fantastico, 1st, 1885–1887; 2nd concerto (1892), unfinished.
- Rapsodia española (Spanish rhapsody), for piano and orchestra (1887).
- Catalonia, symphonic poem (1899).
Symphonic versions of Iberia have been arranged by Enrique Fernández Arbós
Enrique Fernandez Arbos
Enrique Fernández Arbós was a Spanish violinist, composer and conductor who divided much of his career between Madrid and London. He originally made his name as a virtuoso violinist and later as one of Spain’s greatest conductors.Fernández Arbós was born in Madrid...
, Carlos Surinach
Carlos Surinach
Carlos Surinach was a Catalan Spanish-born composer and conductor.He was born in Barcelona, where he held conducting posts at the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona and the Gran Teatre del Liceu...
, and Peter Breiner
Peter Breiner
Peter Breiner is a Slovak pianist, conductor, and composer.Breiner began to play and study the piano at age four. At age nine, he started to study at Conservatory in Košice, Slovakia...
. There is a piano and orchestra version of Rapsodia española by Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina is a Spanish composer. He is the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter.-Life:...
.
Media
External links
- Mallorca interactive hypermedia (Shockwave Player required) at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
- The Life and Music of Isaac Albéniz
- Biography and List of Works by Albéniz
- Isaac Albéniz i Pascual
- Albéniz Foundation
- Albéniz Asturias arranged for Accordion
Articles
- En torno a Isaac Albéniz y su "Iberia" by Antonio Iglesias, Antonio Fernández-Cid (ref)
Sheet music
- Facsimiles (La Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes)
- Free scores by Isaac Albéniz at the Werner Icking Music ArchiveWerner Icking Music ArchiveThe Werner Icking Music Archive , is a web archive of liberally-licensed sheet music of public domain music. The scores are electronically typeset by volunteers and distributed in PDF, often accompanied by their typesetting files. WIMA continues the defunct GMD Music Archive and is named after...
- Tango, arranged by Mischa Elman for violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(from the Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection)
Photos of Albéniz
- Photos (Gallica)
Recordings by Isaac Albéniz
- Improvisación nº 1, Improvisación nº 2, Improvisación nº 3 (ref - La Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes)
- L'escola pianística catalana (Enregistraments històrics) (la mà de guido , LMG3060)
- The Catalan Piano Tradition (VAI Audio, 1001)
- Rollos de Pianola (Obras de Albéniz, Granados, Turina, Ocón, Chapí, Alonso y Otros) (Almaviva, DS - 0141)